Detroit must accept state intervention

One way or another, Detroiters will see their municipal government under state control. The form it takes is the only question.

Detroit officials and Gov. Rick Snyder are engaged in a dialogue neither really wants. The leaders of Michigan's largest city don't want state officials telling them what to do, and the governor doesn't want the burden of fixing the city's profoundly broken fiscal policies.

Detroit's future demands extraordinary steps to reverse its deepening financial crisis, an impending disaster nurtured by decades of poor leadership. City government is expected to run out of money by the end of May, and it faces the prospect of bankruptcy if its budget isn't quickly rescued.

Mayor Dave Bing and the City Council were outraged by the proposed consent agreement the governor proposed, and their anger is understandable. The document essentially relieves Detroit's elected officials of the power to make budget decisions. Since fiscal power is a chief component of any government leader's ability to lead, the mayor and council won't be much more significant than figureheads.

Relinquishing power is difficult. But there is an argument to be made that Detroit's elected officials did that by failing to meet the needs of city residents.

In Detroit, fiscal constraints have made the police force weaker while violent crime increased. The city's ambulance service has suffered to the point that many gunshot victims are driven to the hospital by others rather than wait for an EMT crew who might or might not show up.

Detroit's population decline is the strongest proof that hundreds of thousands of the city's former residents simply don't believe its elected officials can make the city viable. The irony is although city government might have been slow to address its fiscal crisis, the austerity measures its leaders enacted make Detroit's quality of life less viable.

Snyder doesn't want a confrontation. The governor hopes to negotiate the transfer of power with Detroit's officials. In the end, however, Detroit must be rescued and any state aid only will come with a commitment to profoundly restructure city finances and the establishment of a fiscal committee that will ensure future money is spent more prudently.

These are bitter pills, but they must be swallowed if Detroit is to survive.

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Detroit must accept state intervention

One way or another, Detroiters will see their municipal government under state control. The form it takes is the only question. Detroit officials and Gov. Rick Snyder are engaged in a dialogue